Summary:
- The FTC is investigating PC manufacturers for using “warranty void if removed” labels to discourage consumers from exercising their right to repair.
- ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac received letters from the FTC regarding these practices.
- The FTC is concerned about manufacturers denying warranty coverage based on these provisions.
- The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is being invoked to prevent companies from making misleading warranties.
- The Act prohibits conditioning warranties on the use of specific repair services unless provided for free or with a waiver from the FTC.
- The FTC plans to review the written warranties and promotional materials of the companies after 30 days.
- In the past, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Asus, HTC, and Hyundai were also warned by the FTC for similar practices.
Business misconduct is far reaching in every sector within the economy.
Fed and state regulators are unwilling to enforce the rules we have on the books as is.
We get these notices and headlines but has anything gotten better actually?
How is that no surprise medical billing thing going anyway?
- The Act prohibits conditioning warranties on the use of specific repair services unless provided for free or with a waiver from the FTC.
So Apple and Samsung can’t void my phone warranty if I choose to swap my battery or screen or whatever in a third party repair shop?
Not for the battery itself.
They are allowed to void your warranty, if, for example, they can show it’s delivering out of spec voltage and that damaged the SoC.
The funny part is that rather than respecting this, they chose to cryptographically pair the parts, so they stop working if you replace them…
Remember that the burden is on them to show it. But the reality is that when they bring up irrelevant shit like that and try to say that your issue isn’t covered under warranty, it will be on you to “remind” them of that burden, and tell them that what they are trying to do is absolutely fucking illegal under Magnusson-Moss.
The burden is always on the peasant, no matter what the law says lol
And when you do exercise your rights, you get treated like a greedy leech!
*in the USA
Correct. They have to prove that it caused damage.
Another day, another win for right to repair.
maybe eventually the gvmt. will buckle down and dismantle all of the sketchy crap that these companies do. maybe one day.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ever seen one of those “warranty void if removed” stickers covering the screw holes on a gadget?
Gigabyte includes: “If the manufacturing sticker inside the product was removed or damaged, it would no longer be covered by the warranty.”
“The Warranty Act prohibits warrantors of consumer products costing more than five dollars from conditioning their written warranties on a consumer’s use of any article or service, such as repair service, which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name, unless (1) the warranty states the article or service will be provided to the consumer for free, or (2) the warrantor has been granted a waiver by the Commission,” the FTC writes.
“FTC investigators have copied and preserved the online pages in question, and we plan to review your company’s written warranty and promotional materials after 30 days,” the agency is telling each firm.
In 2018, the FTC put Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft on notice for doing the same thing with their game consoles, as well as Asus, HTC, and Hyundai.
iFixit has a blog on how “warranty void if removed” stickers may be legal in other parts of the world.
The original article contains 406 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 53%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
No more mouse screws under the glide pads? Be still my heart.
Yeah, Logitech. I’m going to need to open up my G900 soon because the left mouse button is starting to do the same thing my G7 did back in the day. I hope it’s not more awkward due to the non-removable battery (or less removable, I guess), but the glide pads are larger on this one, I hope they adhere well after being lifted.
I just broke through the ones on my G7. Luckily they didn’t bend downwards from pulling the screws out.
Actually, this time I might even look into getting a better switch instead of fixing the one they put in it. If that’s even a thing, and if there even are more durable mouse button switches because it has been pressed a lot over the years.
It totally is a thing, both getting new switches on their own and the availability of a range of qualities: https://www.maketecheasier.com/replace-faulty-mouse-switches/
The law doesn’t say they can’t make it difficult to service, just that they can’t deny your warranty because you did.
Jokes on them as I don’t care about my warranties, never did. Call me a dumb consumer, but atleast I wrecked the big evil corporation.
edit: I didn’t know about Nintnedo doing this, I just knew about the cheaply made joycons that would drift by deSign after a certain point. The sollution to this was so simple but Nintendo chose not to fix it for the entire Switch’s life spawn.
Leaving it up to 3rd party switch controller manufacturers. Which who knows how long untill they try to ban 3rd party controllers on Nintendo consoles.
You didn’t wreck the big corps. You opted yourself out of their warranty thereby saving them any money they would’ve had to spend on repairing your purchase during the defined warranty window. If anything you lined their pockets by making yourself a cheaper customer.
Which is why I said you could call me a a dumb consumer. but actually…
in a way, I did wreck them in the specific context of this post, because if I don’t care about the warranty then what other reason do I have to obey their demand to not fix it myself.
edit: they want you to either pay them for repairs, or rely on their warranties, and/or to buy an entirely new device. They hate it when consumer know how to repair and fix their devices themselves. Particularly in the tech industry.
I share the DIY repair sentiment, but the other commenter was right. You saved them money by opting yourself out of their warranty, which is free to you, but costs them money. Now, if you had used the warranty and then repaired things yourself after it’s no longer free, that would be a nice FU to them.
good point.
I honestly wonder how those meetings go. It has to be comical villainous to spend so much time trying to fuck over your customer not allowing them to fix what they purchased from you.
I just don’t get it, if an item breaks and I can’t at least try to fix it, there is no way I’m purchasing from the same brand again.
So what is the motivation here? The thing that has kept me with companies is good customer service and a generous warranty service.
Denying claims and making it impossible to fix it myself will get you instantly on my ban list.
So what gives? How did we get here?
